Good morning and welcome to our
continuing study in the book of Luke. We've been in chapter
4 of Luke and looking at this block of time where the Lord
got ran out of Nazareth. He came down into Capernaum,
a city of Galilee, there in Luke 4, 31. And he taught them on
the Sabbath days, and they were astonished at his doctrine, for
his word was with power. And we've been looking at some
of these astonishing doctrines, and we've discussed that for
them to just continue on in their works-oriented behavior and their
works-oriented righteousness, for him to say, well, that's
good, keep it up, surely wouldn't have been astonishing to them.
Astonishing doctrine would have been in regards to what we usually
find when we look at the teachings that he does and where it's recorded
that later on in Luke, he says, He expound beginning at Moses
and all the prophets he expounded to them or taught them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself. So that was his mode
of operation was to take the scriptures, the Old Testament
scriptures beginning at Moses and the prophets, and in every
case expound to them or teach them the things in those scriptures
concerning Himself. And they are always astounded.
They said, didn't our hearts burn within us when He taught
us those things? And then in John 5, verse 39,
He says, "...search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have
eternal life, and they are they that testify of Me." Again, He
amplifies that the Scriptures indeed, the Old Testament was
indeed all about Christ and His substitutionary death on the
cross for his people. And we find detailed graphical
accounts of that in the Psalms and in the Prophets and in the
books of Moses. So they're just there. And so today we've been going
through a some of these astonishing doctrines, we looked into the
condition of man, we looked at the teaching of the Sabbath days,
what the Sabbath really meant, that He was the Lord of the Sabbath,
that those that had entered into the Sabbath of rest had ceased
from their own works, and had entered into the rest on the
total reliance on the finished work of Christ. Then we looked
at total depravity, the fact that man lost all ability spiritually
in the fall in Adam. While we were looking at that, We quoted from John 5.39 a little
while ago, where he said to search the scriptures, for in them you
think you have eternal life, and they are they that testify
of me. And in verse 40 of John chapter 5, he says, they are
they that testify of me, and ye will not come unto me. Here I am. He won't come unto
me. And that's just the nature of
man in the fall. We won't come of our own. We're dead like Lazarus and we're
unable to come of our own volition. We've examined the sovereign
nature of God and His right to love whom He pleases and to show
mercy to whom He pleases, not based on any worth or merit on
the part of the recipients because we have none of our own that
is satisfactory to God. We have no merits. We have no
worth. Claiming our own worth and our
own merit is in fact piling up the debt because we're rejecting
the payment that God said is the only one that's satisfactory.
And we're denying that and saying, take this instead. We're just
like Cain and Abel. And he said that he had no respect
to that. And he has no respect to a works
oriented relationship. And so we looked at Genesis and
Malachi, Genesis 25 and Malachi regarding Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. And then that being quoted in
the New Testament, Romans chapter nine, for the children not being,
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger as it is written. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. And we learned that he hated
Esau and he laid his heritage waste. He never was going to love Esau. He never was going to die for
Esau. And as we looked in our last
lesson, we examined the truth of for whom actually did Christ
die. And the scripture was very clear. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. That's the very words of Jesus.
He said, I did not lay down my life for everybody indiscriminately. I lay down my life for the sheep."
And then to some that were there when he said that, a few verses
later in verse 25 of John chapter 10, he stated directly that They
were not sheep. Some of those that were there
were not sheep because they believed not. Consequently, it falls to
them that he did not die for them. He said, I lay down my
life for the sheep, but you're not the sheep. You don't have
to be too much of a scientist to figure out that relationship
there. Ephesians 5.25 we read last week. Husbands love your
wives and even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it. He gave himself specifically
for the church and not indiscriminately for anyone and then left it up
to them to decide whether or not they would accept or reject
that. Which is one of those religious
tenets. We have the power to accept or
reject. Well, today we're going to look
at the astonishing doctrine called effectual calling of those whom
God has loved from eternity and given to the Son to redeem and
regenerate, born again by the Spirit of God. Effectual calling. We just read some verses that
mention that in Romans 9-11. The purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth."
The purpose of God is Him calling out His sheep. So we're taking
a look at this effectual calling of God to His sheep. This calling
them by the gospel is referred to in the New Testament. Those
that He loved from eternity. If we could imagine that for
a minute. If we were to just kind of hypothetically
say, well, we're going to look back in eternity. Eternity isn't
really a linear thing to look at, but in our frame of mind,
we look at it that way because that's what we know. But if we
were to look back in eternity and enter the mind of God and
the purpose of God and in his mind and in his heart, There was a people that would be ruined by the fall. There was a people, all the world
would be ruined by the fall, but there were a people in there
that he said, I've determined to set my love on them. And he
did that knowing full well that they did not love him back in
their natural condition. And in fact, they would be at
enmity with him. And in fact, they would slay
all the people that he sent to tell him about his love for them. They would even slay his son,
which was according to his determinate counsel as the the substitutionary
sacrifice for the sins of those that didn't want anything to
do with Him. The Scriptures we looked at back
in the Psalms and in Romans 3, there's none righteous, none
that seeketh God, none that understandeth, none want anything to do with
Him on His basis, on His righteousness. And so this astonishing doctrine
of God effectually calling to Himself those whom He has loved
from eternity and those whom He gave to the Son to redeem.
If you want to look up more of that, you could read John chapter
17 where he talks about those whom the Father had given Him.
He lost none. He gave unto them eternal life
and so forth. So, an interesting chapter to
read that prayer of Jesus. His own words there in the red
letter edition in John chapter 17. So man is so at odds with
God so at enmity with him What does it take to overcome? The and you will not come unto
me you you'd think That we'd want to you think well Jesus
was a good guy. He was a good person whatever
you wanted to call him, even in your human nature. Well, he
was a great prophet. He went around healing people. He went around raising the dead.
He went around saying wise things. Why wouldn't you want to associate
with that person? But we find that he was rejected
of men and despised, and that's just our nature towards him.
until he turns us from the worship of our own selves, our own self-righteousness. Human nature is so bound in enmity,
so bound in trying to sow our own fig leaves, so bound in declaring
like Adam that our own righteousness, our own work should prevail,
that we will not, and the scripture says, cannot come to God outside
of Christ. Paraphrasing from John chapter
5 verse 40 in John 6 44 no man can no man has the ability no
will no desire Is not of him that will is not of him that
runneth, but God that showeth mercy no man can No man has the
ability to come to me except and here's this where we get
into this Almighty divine power of God exercise on those those
whom he loved from eternity and No man can come unto me, except
the Father which sent me draw him. And that word draw means
an external almighty force. It's the same word as we find
that when Jesus said, cast your net over the right side of the
ship. And they fished all day and they
didn't catch anything. He says, well throw your net
over on the right side of the ship. and they threw it over
and they could not draw it in because it was so heavy and they
they were doing it by hand they were exerting all of their physical
human energy to try and pull that net out of the water and
it was so loaded that despite their best energies they could
barely do it almost sunk their boat that's the kind of exertion
that we're talking about here this almighty all-powerful exertion
by God that he exercises on his people and he does it in such
a way that that they don't feel that they're they always accuse
people that believe in sovereign grace of being just robots or
puppets and we walk around saying I must go do this or I must go
do this and and it's not it's It's what it says in Psalm 110,
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. He somehow
overcomes us through the new birth, giving us a new heart,
a heart to know him and to love him where we didn't have that
before. We were dead, it says, in trespasses and sins. And now
with a new heart, we have a heart to love God and a heart that
is responsive to Him, where in our old nature it was not. So
why should it be necessary for divine almighty power to be exercised
to bring a person to God? You'd think that they would just
want to. We would want it to be according to our terms and
our conditions and on our perceived merit. So why and how does he
do it? Is it effectual or is it just
good advice and a hope on the part of God that, well, I'm calling
you, but it's up to you to respond. I'm calling you. Many are called,
but few are chosen. There has to be a combination.
It's like in Hebrews 4 where it says the gospel must be mixed
with faith. If it's not mixed with faith,
it did not profit those that heard it exiting Egypt. So it's a kind of a combination
process there. So what does the scripture say
about our willingness to come to God through Christ whom he
has sent? And of course the Old Testament,
Malachi, I'm sending my messenger of the covenant, the covenant
of grace. I'm sending the Christ, the Psalms,
the books of Moses, the prophets, all spoke of it. In Acts chapter
7 verse 51, I believe that's a sermon that
Stephen preached. He went back all the way to the
books of Moses and preached Christ to them all the way through up
to the present time. And then he says, you stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the
Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. And so he equates this nature
of man in the Old Testament. It was no different than the
nature of man in the New Testament days. The nature of man is always
to resist God. Adam hid himself. Instead of
coming forth to God and asking forgiveness, he hid himself and
then he blamed and cast the blame on others and tried to sow his
own fig leaves of righteousness to cover his now nakedness that
he exhibited. He lost his covering. That was
a good message. last Wednesday night from our
pastor on calves of the stall, on this covering that the Lord
provides. And in the Psalm, we quoted this
from Romans chapter 3 a little bit ago, in Psalm 14, 2, the
Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. And the answer
was, there were none. There were none that understood.
There were none. And that's what Paul wrote when he wrote to the
church at Rome in Romans chapter three. He says, as it is written,
and we just read from where it was written in the Psalms, there
is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. So that's pretty encompassing,
isn't it? We'd have to say that that includes
pretty much everyone in our old nature, the nature that we're
born into on this world of ourselves. We don't understand. We don't
seek God. So something must happen that
causes us to reverse course as what repentance
talks about. Turning, a turning. Remember
we talked about John the Baptist being after the spirit of Elijah.
Elijah the Turner. Turn from your old ways of self-righteousness,
of self-worship, and turn and totally
rely on Christ for salvation. In 1 John 4, verse 10, it says,
Herein is love, not that we love God. Isn't that interesting for
him to look down from heaven and eternity and say, I love
them people. But they don't love me. Now,
when I was thinking about this, we're, in our human nature, even
after we're regenerated, we have kind of a difficult time responding
in a kind way. If someone doesn't like us, if
someone hates us, we kind of reciprocate that. Someone hates
us, well, we just hate them right back. It seems like that's our
natural inclination. Somebody comes up and says, I
hate your guts. We don't say, I love you. I've always loved you. And so
it's rare circumstances where that might occur. But we're more
inclined to say, well, I hate you back. But herein is love, not that
we love God, but that He loved us, and He went more than, I
know you don't love me, but I loved you, and I'm sending my Son to
be the propitiation for your sin. I'm sending my only begotten
Son, in whom I'm well pleased to take your place and take the
punishment that you actually deserve for your sins. He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. That's just remarkable.
And we don't really grasp much of that until after we've been
regenerated by grace. After we're born again, given
a new heart to love God, we kind of discover this wonderful truth,
this astounding doctrine that apart from grace and the drawing
of God, we would never come to Him. We would never come to Him. If we did come to Him, we would
come to Him like Cain. Here's all the stuff that I've
done. Or we'd come to Him like the Pharisee. Here's all the
things I did this week. I fasted. I prayed. I did this. I gave tithes of everything. I obeyed all the law from my
youth up. I'm lying right now as I'm talking
to you." So, all those things, that's the way we would come,
and the way we do come apart from grace. And now, we know
that we love Him because He first loved us. That's what it says
in 1 John 4, 19. So is there Old Testament Scripture
which makes us to know about the eternal love of God and His
drawing of His people to Himself? Well, I've selected just a few
for time, but the Bible says, search the scriptures for they
are they that testify of me is what Jesus said. He expounded
to them in Moses and all the prophets of things concerning
himself. And so I think you'd have to
look pretty hard in the Bible to find a place that somehow,
somewhere, some shape did not have something It's all about
the Christ that came to save His people from their sins. So,
let's look at, we'll just go through these real quickly. In
Song of Solomon, chapter 1, verse 4. Song of Solomon 1, verse 4, it
says, draw me. There's that word again, this
drawing. He says, draw me, we will run
after thee. The king hath brought me. There's
this affirmative action on the part of God on behalf of his
people. Draw me. The king hath brought me into
his chambers." We're kind of like Mephibosheth. He was crippled. He couldn't walk. So they had
to go fetch him and carry him and bring him to the king's table. Because he couldn't come of his...
No man can come when they're like Mephibosheth. They had to
go and fetch him. They had to go and bring him
and carry him. He couldn't come of his own volition. the King
hath brought me into His chambers." And then it says, when that happens,
we will be glad. We won't say, curse you for making
me come, or curse you for drawing me to you, curse you for saving
me from my sins, curse you for making me aware that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures. It says, when that
happens, we'll be glad and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy
love. More than wine, the upright love
Thee." When they've had a change of heart, when they've had the
new birth, when they've been exposed to grace like that, when
they've been drawn and brought into the King's chambers, they're
glad and rejoice in it. What a wonderful Scripture. In
Jeremiah 30, verse 21, Their nobles shall be of themselves,
and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them. And I
will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me. That is an affirmative action
on the part of God on a person. For who is this that engaged
his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord? No one can engage
their heart to approach unto God of themselves. all our righteousness or his
filthy rags. Everything that we would bring
to him of our own self is like... We would never approach on that
basis. Many people say that they would,
but when it comes down to the time to do that, it will not
be an option. It will be rightly shown up for
what it is. He'll just say, didn't we do
all this stuff? When didn't we do all that stuff?
Depart from me, I never knew you. Jeremiah 31.3, I love this
verse because it talks about the eternal love of God and His
activity. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, because, and that
word therefore means because of the eternal love that He determined,
Therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Loving kindness
is what God displays to those who don't desire Him, who don't
seek Him, who are at enmity with Him. But nevertheless, they are
His sheep. They are the people whom He gave
the Son in the covenant of grace. And only God knows who that is. And we learn from Revelation,
I think in chapter 13, that it was a multitude that no man could
number. It was a big amount. Yet he calls it a remnant according
to the election of grace. Psalm 65 verse 4 is a very powerful
verse. The psalmist describes how blessed is a man that God
has set his eternal love on. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and cause us to approach unto thee that he may dwell in
thy courts. It's kind of similar to what
we read there in Song of Solomon chapter 1. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Satisfied
is a word that gives us a complete. We're satisfied. There's no longing. There's nothing missing. Everything
is complete. We're not saying, well I wish
I had this or I wish I had that. We'll be there in the court of
the Lord. in our righteousness provided
by Christ, and we're going to be satisfied. We're going to
be happy. So those are just a few from
the Old Testament that talks about God exercising divine power
on someone, causing them to come to Him, causing them to approach,
talking about drawing them irresistibly. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee." Religion always kind of portrays this
as, well, the spirit just kind of woos you. It's like dangling
a carrot in front of your nose and saying, keep coming, keep
coming, keep coming. And if you finally do all the
steps and I'll let you have a nibble on the carrot. But it's not a
wooing. It's like Peter when it says
when they were arresting the Lord that night and Peter leaped
up to defend him and he drew out his sword and smote the ear
off of Malchus. Can you imagine him saying, come
out, come out, sword. I'm wooing you out of the scabbard. He yanked that sword out and
swooped up on that guy and whacked him with it. So it's a vigorous approach there. Not what religion portrays it
to be. But yet, it's done with such
loving kindness and such grace that When the Lord breathes into
us the breath of life, when He calls us by the Gospel, He intersects
us with His Gospel. Either He brings us to a place
where the Gospel is declared, or He brings the Gospel to us
somehow that transpires. And then the Holy Spirit mixes
that with faith. He mixes it with the total reliance
on Christ for salvation. And we believe according to the
working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He
raised Him from the dead. So this drawing that we're talking
about here is so powerful yet so filled with loving kindness. We just don't have a true understanding
of it until we're born again. So what does the New Testament
say regarding the effectual, almighty, compelling power of
God in bringing every one of his sheep to himself? Normally we would call this lesson
Irresistible Grace after the acronym, but we're calling it
Compelling Grace is the title of this lesson today. And we're
taking that from Luke chapter 14, beginning in verse 16. And the Lord, here's the very
words of Jesus in your red letter edition Bible. And He said unto
them, a certain man made a great supper and bade many, invited
them to come, the general call. And he sent his servant at suppertime
to say to them that were bidden, come. For all things are now
ready. And they all, notice every single
one, they all with one consent, that means they were all in agreement,
they were all ruined by the fall, they were all impacted by their
sin nature. They all with one consent began
to make excuse. I can't come on the total reliance
on Christ for salvation. I have my own concept. I have my own idea about God.
There are many paths to God. All the things that we hear in
the world. They all with one consent began
to make excuse. The first said unto him, well,
I bought a piece of ground and I must needs go see to it. And
I pray thee, have me excuse. And another said, I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray have me excused. They all want to be excused from
the only way of righteousness that God has provided. They all,
well, excuse me from that, but I have this other thing, and
I think that you'll agree with me that my way is satisfactory. Another said, I've married a
wife, and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and
showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house,
being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed
and the halt and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it
is done as thou has commanded. And yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servant,
Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come
in, that my house may be filled. Compel them to come in. And he
does that with loving kindness. And his house is going to be
filled. It's going to be filled with a multitude that no man
could number from every kindred, tongue, nation, tribe, and people. Compel them to come in. And John
chapter 6, we'll turn over there for a minute. John chapter 6. He is repeating some things that
he said in John chapter 6 verse 37-44 regarding the no man can
come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him and all
that the Father giveth me shall come unto me. Two powerful verses
there, but in John chapter 6 verse 63 He declares some astonishing
doctrine about things physical and things spiritual. He said,
it's the spirit that quickeneth, that makes alive, that overcomes
being dead in your sins and trespasses. The spirit that quickeneth, the
flesh profiteth nothing. The flesh cannot resurrect itself. The flesh cannot reform. The
flesh, you who are accustomed to do evil, Can you do anything
else? The leopard can't change his
spots. You can't add one inch to your stature. You can do nothing. The flesh profiteth nothing.
He said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. There are some of you that believe
not, even though He gave them the gospel, even though He'd
been giving them the gospel through Moses and the prophets and the
Psalms from the beginning of time. Yet there's some that believe
not. For Jesus knew from the beginning,
and I think not just the beginning of this episode that he's talking
about here, but he knew his sheep from the beginning, and he knew
who were not the sheep from the beginning. He knew whom God had
given him in the covenant of grace. Remember in John chapter
10, he said, the good shepherd knows his sheep and he calleth
them by name. It's specific. He even knows
how many hairs are on your head, it says. He knew from the beginning who
they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. It
was not a surprise. He knew all things, and He knew
that it was according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God that that happened. He said, the Son of Man must
go as it is written, and He must suffer and be crucified and raised
again in three days as it is written. So in verse 65, John
6, 65, and he said, therefore, Because it's the Spirit that
quickeneth. Therefore, because the flesh can do nothing, the
flesh profiteth nothing. Therefore, because I know my
sheep, and they hear my call, and they follow me, they hear
my voice. Therefore said I unto you that
no man can come unto me. He said, I told you this before.
In John 6.44. Therefore I said unto you, no
man can come unto me. except it were given unto him
of my Father. It's not of him that willeth,
not of him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy, that
exercises this divine, compelling power to bring his sheep in,
to call them, and that they would come to him willingly with a
new heart, a heart to love him. Just as Lazarus was quickened
and called forth, So are the sheep, the church, the people
of God that were given to the Son by the Father. Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 1 says, and you hath he quickened. Made alive
just as this picture, this Lazarus resurrection that we saw in the
scriptures. He did it on purpose. He waited.
Lazarus was his friend. And the same as he says, I lay
down my life for my friend. There's no greater love than
a man lay down his life for his friends. I lay down my life for
the sheep. And you hath he quickened, made
alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. You are no more able
to come to God voluntarily of your own will, then Lazarus was
able to raise up off of that tomb by himself before Christ
said, Lazarus come forth. Wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in time past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, which was enmity with God, coming
to God on our own terms, bringing our own righteousness, our own
fig leaves. And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. And here comes the thing that
makes the difference. You might go back and if you
go to our Sovereign Grace Baptist Church website and look up our
Pastor Norman Wells sermon on what makes the difference. Well
here it is, and he brought a whole lesson on but God. And here it
is, but God, we were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love,
wherewith He loved us, He loved us even when we were dead in
sins, even when we were in enmity with Him, even when we were fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and the nature of our wrath, even as others. When we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. And, here's another thing that's
an activity on the part of God, and hath raised us up together. God hath raised us up together,
nothing we did. And we find that out that there
was nothing we could do. And when we find out that He
raised us up, we're like in song of song. We rejoice and praise
that the King has drawn us and raised us up and made us to sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And then he goes
on to say that In the ages to come, He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Even when we hated Him and we were dead in sins, He exhibited
kindness to us. He has not rewarded us according
to our iniquities, but He has exhibited kindness toward us
through Christ Jesus. For by grace, Or you save through
faith, through total reliance on Christ for salvation. And
that, not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And that's what we would do.
If we could come to Christ on our own merits, well, we'd be
saying like that Pharisee, well, I fasted twice this week, and
I gave tithes right down to my mustard seed, and I prayed, and
I did this, and I did that, and I'm glad I'm not like that other
guy over there that doesn't do any of that stuff. we would be
boasting about it, even to God. In Romans 8, 28 through 30, we
look at this irresistible grace, this calling of the sheep, the
church, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. And even in this very time that
we're living in, there's a lot of bad things going on. There's
rioting and looting and protesting and there's pandemic and disease
and a lot of horrible things going on. But in the ages to
come, we'll see that somehow it was all for the furtherance
of the gospel. It was all according to his purpose,
not by accident. And we don't like to think that We just have a hard time grasping
that, I think. for whom he did foreknow, those
that he knew in eternity. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love, an eternal love. That means he loved you
and knew you in eternity and loved you. Those he did foreknow. And it's talking about people
here, not actions. And many times religion will
try to rewrite that to say, well, he knew who would believe. He
knew who would do this. He knew who would do that. And
it's not, it's talking about persons for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren, speaking of Christ there. Moreover, more
than that, if that wasn't, if that wasn't wonderful enough, It says, moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. And he does this through the
gospel. We're called by the gospel. God
chose by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes,
to the Jew first and to the Greek. The Bible is replete with those
scriptures there regarding the gospel, that God uses the gospel
the death, burial, and resurrection of his son as a substitutionary
sacrifice on behalf of his people. He uses that to call them to
himself and mixes it with faith, with total reliance on that.
and causes them to believe it. Romans chapter 1 tells us this
very thing. In Romans chapter 1 verse 1,
Paul is writing to this church at Rome, and he identifies himself
there in verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God. You
know what he said later on? He said, when it pleased God,
At the appointed time, when it pleased God to reveal His Son
in me, He did it. And then up until then, I was
a Guinean. I was on my way to wreak havoc in the church." He
says that on many occasions. He said it with, there's where
I was going in my old nature. He said, I was your best legalist. I had my own list of righteousness
stuff that I was doing. I was on my way to defeat enemies
of the law. when Christ arrested me, called
to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, caused to
believe that, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the
holy scriptures." He said, I knew all those scriptures, but I didn't
know what they were talking about. But suddenly in that desert on
the way to Damascus, it was made clear to me concerning his son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience
to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom are
ye also the called of Jesus Christ. To all that be in Rome, beloved
of God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved of God and called,
for whom he did foreknow, he also called. I've loved you with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you, called you, effectually. So we turn up to Romans chapter
9 for another instance of calling, effectual calling, found in Romans
9-11 as we discussed this in Unconditional Election where
he said, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. There's that
eternal love again. For the children not being yet
born, neither have having done any good or evil, nothing that
would sway someone either one way or the other because they
hadn't done anything yet, that the purpose of God, according
to election, might stand. According to His choosing, which
He chose for no other reason, but according to His own good
will and His good pleasure. That the purpose of God, according
to election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth."
Neither one of those boys had any merit or did anything that
would cause God to react one way or the other to either one
of them except that on one he had set his eternal love and
determined to call him to him by the gospel and to give him
the new birth and cause him to love him. You'd think it would be cool
if God would just do that right off the bat and you wouldn't
have to go through a lot of stuff in life. But he let Jacob kind
of grow up and be a stinker, and he was called the conniver,
the supplanter, the trickster. And he treated his brother dirty
and fooled his dad, and his mother was in on it with him. So there's
just an endless line of wrongdoing there. Yet it was all according
to God's purpose. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. And then we go on down to Romans
chapter 9 verse 21, where he discusses the sovereignty of
God. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? The potter takes a lump of clay
and he can make whatever he is skillful enough to make out of
it. the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor. He could take one lump of clay
and make a drinking cup out of it, and he could take another
lump of clay and make a thunder mug out of it. So it's up to
the potter to determine what he's going to make it. He owns
the clay. He has the skill. He has the power to do what he
will. And he's making this reference. He's quoting the Old Testament
here. And what if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much suffering,
much long suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.
He let them go on and get away with a lot of things that we
would disagree with, that we would say, well, that was not
good. But according to God's purpose, He did it. that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy. which he had aforeprepared
unto glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles." That's astonishing doctrine. Jesus would
have been teaching that from Hosea chapter 2 verse 23. In Moses and all the prophets,
astounding doctrine. This calling of the Gentiles
as well as the Jews. They were vessels of mercy prepared
from eternity. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says,
we are bound, we're obligated Obligated to God to give thanks
always to God for you brethren because he knew that that God
was the originator the author and finisher of their faith We're
bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren beloved
of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth and And in time, it says, whereunto He called you by our
gospel. to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ." So, eternal love, effectual calling
go hand in hand at the appointed time that God has determined. When it pleased God to reveal
His Son in them in Thessalonica, or Thessalonia, that's when it
occurred. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 23 says,
We preach Christ crucified, and unto the Jews it is a stumbling
block, and unto the Greeks it is foolishness. not interested in this Messiah
that they didn't know and didn't believe in. The Greeks were more
interested in philosophy and debate. It was religious foolishness
to them. But, here we have this intervening
word from God again. But to them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, It's Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. This Gospel of Christ crucified
becomes precious to them. It becomes powerful to them.
It becomes altogether lovely to them. And they see in it the
wisdom of God overcoming their, you will not come. And if we
do come, we try to come up some other way like a thief and a
robber. down that wide road. 2 Timothy
chapter 1 verse 9 talks about Christ who hath saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began." That's a potent verse there. There's several things
in there that we could spend time on. He saved us and called
us. I think that order is correct
there. Saved us and called us. astonishing doctrine, the sovereign
right and ability of God Almighty to purpose to do something, to
determine to do it from eternity, and to effectually accomplish
that which He's determined according to the pleasure of His goodwill,
to save a people whom He loved eternally, who did not regard
Him, in fact, who rejected Him, and that every one of these whom
he has loved and gave to the Son to redeem, he would call
to himself by the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection
of his Son." And there's a scripture in John chapter 6 verse 37 that
I always take comfort in because many people come to our church
and some come occasionally, some come once, some come all the
time. But we know that whenever they
come, anytime they come, they're going to have heard the gospel. And we can rest assured that
if they're the Lord's people, He's going to take that and make
it effectual in them. He's going to call them by His
gospel and breathe into them the breath of life. And if they
don't believe it, It's not because they didn't hear it. So we can
rest assured that we have done everything that we could do.
We've declared fully the gospel. We've not shunned to declare
all the counsel of God. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. every single one of them. They
will none of them be left out. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. And that brings us to our next
and final astonishing doctrine that we're going to look at in
this series, the perseverance of the saints. They will all
come and none will be cast out. You won't be able to extricate
yourself from the love of God in any way, shape, or form as
it tells us in Romans chapter 8. Nothing can separate us from
the love of Christ. So, thank you again for your
attention. I hope you've enjoyed these studies in Lut. Regarding,
they were astounded as doctrine. It was with power. Lut chapter
4 verse 30-31. So, thank you for your attention
and as always, be free.